Thoracic Surgical Techniques (PDF)

Mr Coonar has been a consultant at Papworth since 2007 and his practice is in pure thoracic surgery. He works closely with a large team including other surgeons, specialist nurses, radiologists and physicians. Mr Coonar was appointed President of the Royal Society of Medicine Cardiothoracic Section in December 2013.

He handles benign diseases and cancer. His main clinical interests are minimally invasive surgery (video-assisted, endoscopic and others), lung cancer surgery (including advanced cases and patients with poor lung function), mesothelioma surgery, chest wall surgery, airway surgery, lung volume reduction surgery, surgery for thoracic sarcoma and resection of metastatic cancer to the chest.

Initially trained in London and the United States, Mr Wells has worked at Papworth Hospital as a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon since 1986. His specialist area of cardiac surgical interest is the management of all forms of heart valve disease, especially mitral valve reconstruction.

Mr Wells has the largest experience in the United Kingdom and among the largest in the world with over 3,000 cases completed achieving a near 100% repair rate for leaking mitral valves with mortality at less than 1.0% for first time procedures. His aim is to achieve a normally functioning valve. He also has an interest in aortic valve repair and surgery of the aorta.



In his thoracic practice, Mr Wells offers a full range of surgical procedures for lung cancer and all benign diseases in the chest. This includes hyperhydrosis, thoracic outlet syndrome and pectus deformities.